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Archive for July, 2010

I am obviously not the first person to make this particular assertion (read here, here & here to start), but it’s still ridiculous. For me.

I am not a CEO.

I am not a businesslady.

I am not a business student.

I have never taken a business class.

I don’t have any particular Life Responsibilities other than Do School, Housekeep, and Keep Cat Alive.

What I do have is needless, systemic stress that follows me from job to job, from state to state, from day to day, and a burning desire to categorize and compartmentalize every fifteen minutes of my life. So Getting Things Done is really perfect for me, even if I don’t have any high-priority business interests to manage.

The execution of the GTD system is almost wildly complicated, but quite intuitive. I’m not going to attempt to explain the mechanics, but, for me, the magic step is this:

1) Everything that enters your head leaves your head as immediately as possible, to a list. I like lists.

2) Regularly, the contents of that list are “handled” predictably. Some things are done immediately: do all two-minute tasks right away (what a great habit) Some things are recorded elsewhere (appointments on the calendar, notes for something in the future, phone numbers in the address book). Other things are tossed immediately (why did I write that down?) Other things are given the respect for thoughtful consideration they require.

Unlike the more traditional to-do list, this list doesn’t write your marching orders, your ‘Do This or Face The Wrath of Your Wrathful, Perfect, Imaginary Self’ stigma. Not everything can be done right away, or should be done right away. Your time does not belong to the list – the list is just the contents of your everyday brain, somewhere you can look at it, and make informed decisions instead of those dictated by guilt, procrastination, or haste.

3) And you still get to cross everything off in the end.

David Allen calls this a “trusted system,” and this is what my brain wants. My brain, rightfully so, does not trust itself to be it’s best self all the time, and actually remember to do everything I need to/want to do, or to always choose to do those things over the easier, more pleasant things. Like The Ocarina of Time. My brain currently gravitates to a Nintendo 64 controller more often than a schoolbook. And that’s okay, as long as my system is there to catch me back up when I’m done beating the mother-fraisfmoeining gdwatertemple.

If you trust your system, you can relax and enjoy relaxing, which is so peaceful I want to cry.

You get to play with lists without feeling the press of futility, knowing your beautiful, useful to-do list will most likely go ignored and be tossed, uncrossed, into next week’s garbage.

I’ll let you know how the Creative Productivity thing works out later.

Coming closer to a year living in Boston, a year post-move, and I am feeling waves of urgency pulling me here to write some things about it, about my life now, about my life before, about this crazy, crazy year of my life.

But then I can’t decide what to write.

For now, a poorly told anecdote. Showing is better than telling. Just take this story and multiply it by my life.

On Sunday night, I turned off the light for bed and moaned until Lance came in the room to see what my problem was. “What is your problem?” he asked. I told him I didn’t know if I should get up early or sleep in. I told him I didn’t want to go to sleep because I wasn’t tired and I’d just have to wake up again. I told him I didn’t want to go to my internship.

“Because I have to wake up.” I said. “And get dressed. And make food. And then eat it.”

He laughed at me.

I did go to sleep and I did wake up. There was a note on the TV. It said: “Wake me up before you leave I have something to ask you.”

So I did. In his underwear, half asleep, Lance explained this hare-brained scheme to buy a car in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and not just any car, but THE EXACT SAME CAR WE HAVE only with 30,000 less miles and a blue paint job.

Being that I didn’t know we were LOOKING for a car, I continued to make food, go to Somerville, eat my food, and come home.

I walked in the door more than prepared to be tired. Lance was waiting for me in the kitchen.

“Look what I got today!”

It wasn’t a blue Saturn, but a window air conditioning unit half the size of our four-door sedan, blocking all the sunlight and leaving a gaping opening in the window where my cat might find a deathly escape.

“We already have one of those.” I pointed to the bedroom.

“It was free!” he said. “I drove twenty miles to go get it. It was really heavy. But I can’t plug it in! I have to go to Home Depot and get an adapter. I’m going to sell it. I think I’ll make some espresso now, so I won’t stay up so late again tonight. Where should I put this air conditioner?

Bulletin #1: Until September 1, I only have two responsibilities – Show up to Work, Show up to Internship. It’s pretty much 9 to 5, five days a week, but really, the hard part is Showing Up.

Bulletin #2: I’m dropping down to two classes next semester, and neither of which will be cataloging. After receiving a friendly, introductory email from the prof that included the phrase “maybe you should drop the class” more than three times, I took the hint.

Bulletin #3: I will be back in Michigan in late August, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Bulletin #4: My cat went into heat for about three days. I couldn’t be more excited to drive her back to Michigan and get her fixed.

Bulletin #5: I have friends from home, 1, 2 and 3. Friend 1 is due in December. Friend 2 is due in January. Friend 3 is due in February.

Bulletin #6: We are getting out of the city on Sunday. I promise you this! I just don’t know where we are going…

So I guess now that my endless stream of vacation nonsense has come to a close, I must return to blogging about other things. Things not from a few weeks ago.

Maybe something about What I Did Today?

I made a smoothie for breakfast but it wasn’t that good. When you take the time to make a smoothie for breakfast, you expect it to be awesome, right? Right. It wasn’t. But now I have four more chopped up frozen bananas to eat up…

Something from the future?

I am woefully confused about my future career again. Maybe I never want to do another storytime. Would that be so wrong? Maybe I don’t care about my job that much, as long as I can make okay money and do it wherever I roam. Even if I have to do storytimes…

Or something from the past? Farther than two weeks past?

When I was twelve, I owned a short sleeved, mock-turtle neck minidress, made of royal blue crushed velvet. Hot.